Sri Lanka, Dec. 22 -- Amid the ongoing probe into the withdrawn batches of the Ondansetron and request of the relevant Indian company to send samples for global testing, fresh concerns have been raised over Sri Lanka's continued absence of a World Health Organization (WHO)-accredited laboratory for drug testing.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama, Chairman of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) said steps are now underway to upgrade existing laboratory facilities to meet WHO accreditation standards.

However, he stressed that former authorities had failed to take timely action over the years to establish or upgrade such a facility resulting in the current dependency on external laboratories for internati...